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Abstract
In this paper, a low-cost hover control mechanism is developed and implemented on low-cost microcontroller for a type of aircraft
configuration known as the quadcopter. Flight control becomes simpler as the quadcopter hovers at a constant level from ground by itself,
at the same time allowing anyone to easily maneuver it at that height and perform tasks such as imaging. When successfully implemented,
the proposed hover control design will simplify the flight control of a quadcopter, especially for beginners and unskilled individuals.
2012 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of the Centre of
Humanoid Robots and Bio-Sensor (HuRoBs), Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA.
Keywords: hover control; quadcopter; microcontroller.
1. Introduction
The hover stability of a quadcopter is important for many of its applications such as security surveillance, crop
monitoring and on-board imaging to allow clear still images to be taken in surveillance operations [1]. It also prevents the
quadcopter from crashing in the event of strong wind or due to its weight. Fig. 1 shows the six degrees of freedom of the
quadcopter. In Fig. 1(a), x and y represents the translational motion along the x- and y-axes respectively and represents
yaw, the rotational motion about the z-axis, while in Fig. 1(b), represents roll, the rotational motion about the x-axis,
represents pitch, the rotational motion about the y-axis and z represents the translational motion in the direction
perpendicular to ground. The label 1 signifies the front propeller.
'
Fig. 1 The six degrees of freedom of a quadcopter at (a) Birds eye view, (b) Frontal view
With a hover control unit, the quadcopter will hover at a constant height z (see Fig. 1(b)), with its roll and pitch angles
stabilised by the gyroscope. The person at the command base will only need to control the quadcopters motion along the xand y-axes and also its rotation about the z-axis (to turn corners), reducing the degree of complexity from six to only three.
This defines the purpose and aim of this paper, which is to obtain a stable quadcopter hover that will last for at least 5
minutes with an acceptable error of within
of the hover altitude.
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Bernard Tat Meng Leong et al. / Procedia Engineering 41 (2012) 458 464
A significant number of research works have been performed to obtain a mathematical model which describes the
quadcopter flight dynamics [2][3][4][5]. As a result, controller boards have been developed and mass produced to be sold in
the market. A few notable off-the-shelf controller board developers are KKmulticopter, Hoverfly and DJI Naza, which
usually have good performance but can be costly (up to USD 260 [6]).
This paper proposes a Hover Control System which will operate on a low cost microcontroller board, Arduino
Duemilanove, which costs USD 24[7]. As opposed to the controller boards available in the market, the implementation of
the Arduino board in this research does not require the original quadcopter gyroscope to be removed. This makes the
proposed prototype portable as it can be installed in other quadcopter units without affecting their existing operation.
Successful implementation of the proposed prototype hover controller will enable the quadcopter hover control to be
achieved at approximately 10% of the current controller market price in addition to being customisable to suit users needs.
1. Control Theories
1.1. PID Control
The PID (Proportional-Integral-Derivative) control algorithm has been considered and implemented in literature to
control the hover altitude of the quadcopter [8][9]. PID control is a type of linear control that is widely used in the robotics
and automation industry [10]. The PID algorithm is popularly used mainly because [11]:
It has a simple structure
It provides good performance
It can be tuned even if the specific model of the controlled plant or system is not available
The last factor is important as it was not easy to obtain the exact mathematical model of the quadcopter [11]. A PID
controller functions by calculating the error, or difference between a measured output and a desired setpoint and adjusts the
system control inputs such that the calculated error is minimised. The PID algorithm consists mainly of three control
parameters, P Proportional, I Integral and D Derivative. The mathematical expression of the discrete-time PID
algorithm is given in (1). P determines the reaction to the current error, I determines the reaction based on a sum of recent
errors while D responds to the rate at which the error has been changing. Table 1 summarizes the effects of increasing these
parameters to the system.
k
(1)
i =0
Rise Time
Overshoot
Decrease
Increase
Small
Decrease
Small
Decrease
Settling Time
Small
Increase
Steady-State Error
Decrease
Stability
Degrade
Increase
Increase
Large Decrease
Degrade
Decrease
Decrease
Minor Change
Improve
J = x kT Qx k + u kT Ru k
k =0
(2)
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Bernard Tat Meng Leong et al. / Procedia Engineering 41 (2012) 458 464
u k = Fk x k 1
(3)
^
Z
D
'
D
^
D
W
D
ZW
z
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Bernard Tat Meng Leong et al. / Procedia Engineering 41 (2012) 458 464
0.0228
z + 1.0025
(4)
Reference
System Response
1
0.5
0
Altitude (m)
1.5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
6
4
2
0
0
10
15
20
25
Time (s)
(a)
30
35
40
45
Reference
System Response
1
0.5
0
45
Time (s)
-2
1.5
Altitude (m)
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
30
35
40
45
Time (s)
6
4
2
0
-2
10
15
20
25
Time (s)
(b)
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Bernard Tat Meng Leong et al. / Procedia Engineering 41 (2012) 458 464
1
0.5
0
Reference
System Response
1.5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
30
35
40
45
Time (s)
30
20
10
0
-10
10
15
20
25
Time (s)
(c)
Fig. 4 The system response for (a) Proportional Control, P = 3.1557,; (b) Proportional-Integral Control, P = 3.1557, I = 1.0; (c) Proportional-IntegralDerivative Control, P = 7.0, I = 4.0, D = 1.0
Table 2. Software Simulation Results
Control Type
Proportional (P)
Proportional-Integral (PI)
Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID)
Overshoot (%)
0
22.81
17.9
Simulation results show that the PID control returns zero steady state error with lower settling time and overshoot
compared to P and PI control. In this research, it is desirable to have a low overshoot percentage and settling time with zero
steady state error, thus the PID control is selected.
3.2. Hardware Implementation
The software simulation provided a good platform to understand the effects of the control parameters on the system.
However, a actual hardware implementation using the software-obtained parameters showed unstable hovering of the
quadcopter. This could be caused by inaccurate mathematical modelling of the actual quadcopter system. Thus an empirical
method was developed to empirically obtain the control parameters. The tuning of the control system was performed based
on the theoretical control effects summarised in Table 3. The steps involved in the empirical approach are shown in Fig.5.
Set an initial Kp
(Ki and Kd = 0)
Large
Overshoot?
Yes
Decrease Kp or Increase
Kd
No
Stable?
No
Increase Kd
Yes
Steady State
Error?
No
Optimum Control
Achieved
Yes
Increase Ki
Bernard Tat Meng Leong et al. / Procedia Engineering 41 (2012) 458 464
Fig. 5 Empirical Methodology to Obtain Control Parameters
Using the empirical approach in Fig 5, the optimal P, I and D values were found to be 0.005, 0.01 and 0.003 respectively.
Using a 3-axis accelerometer, the stability of the quadcopter can be evaluated. Fig. 6 displays the acceleration profile
obtained in the hardware implementation test. The new acceleration profile shows that the quadcopters hover is stable at
the reference altitude, thus achieving stable hover control.
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
Sample Number
Acceleration Profile (y-dimension)
1
0
-1
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
Sample Number
Acceleration Profile (z-dimension)
11
10
9
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
Sample Number
Fig. 6 Acceleration Profiles in the x-, y- and z- dimensions
4. Conclusion
The quadcopter configuration generally has a greater stability as compared to the other configurations. In addition to that,
the quadcopter is able to hover close to its target, unlike its other counterparts. However, the hovering of the quadcopter can
be unstable, making it difficult to navigate and be used in precise monitoring operations. The purpose of this research was to
address this hover stability issue and develop a hover control system that is not only low cost, but fully customisable to suit
its users needs. The results of the hardware implementation show that the quadcopter has a stable hover with an error of 2
cm for a total flight time of 5 minutes with a total implementation cost of USD 24.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Monash University for their support and resources to conduct this research, and Mr.
Khoo Boon How for provision of the use of his data acquisition module.
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